Speaker
Description
While traditional neuroimaging approaches to the study of executive functions (EFs) have typically employed task-evoked paradigms, resting state studies are gaining popularity as a tool for investigating inter-individual variability in the functional connectome and its relationship to cognitive performance outside of the scanner. Using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from the Human Connectome Project Lifespan database, the present study capitalised on graph theory to chart cross-sectional variations in the intrinsic functional organisation of the frontoparietal (FPN) and the default mode (DMN) networks in 500 healthy individuals (from 10 to 100 years of age), to investigate the neural underpinnings of EFs across the lifespan. Topological properties of both FPN and DMN were predictive of EF performance, but not of a control task of picture naming, providing specificity in support for a tight link between neuro-functional and cognitive-behavioural efficiency within the EF domain. The topological organisation of the DMN, however, appeared more sensitive to age-related changes relative to that of the FPN. Because the DMN matures earlier in life than the FPN, it is more susceptible to neurodegenerative changes and because its activity is stronger in conditions of resting state, the DMN might be easier to measure in noncompliant populations and in those at the extremes of the life-span curve, namely very young or elder participants. Here, we argue that the study of its functional architecture in relation to higher order cognition across the lifespan might, thus, be of greater interest compared with what has been traditionally thought.
| If you're submitting a poster, would you be interested in giving a blitz talk? | No |
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| If you're submitting a symposium, or a talk that is part of a symposium, is this a junior symposium? | No |
